The first (and possibly only) presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump drew a substantially larger audience than a June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden.
Early Nielsen ratings figures for Tuesday’s telecast, produced by ABC News but simulcast on multiple broadcast and cable networks, show the debate drawing about 57.75 million viewers across the big four broadcast networks, CNN, Fox News, Fox Business and MSNBC. That about 6.5 million more people than the final tally for the June 27 debate between Trump and President Joe Biden — and that total included nine more networks and out of home viewing, which aren’t yet factored into Tuesday’s numbers.
Preliminary, all-network ratings for the June debate put the total at 47.9 million viewers, which adjusted up to 51.27 million in final same-day ratings. (This story will be updated with final figures later in the day.)
Biden’s poor performance in the June debate was a catalyst for him dropping his re-election bid and endorsing Harris a month later.
ABC News produced the debate, and ABC drew by far the biggest audience of any single network Tuesday night with 18.31 million viewers from 9-10:45 p.m. ET. NBC placed second with 9.7 million viewers, followed by Fox News with 8.67 million. MSNBC (6.02 million) edged CBS (5.91 million) for fourth place; then came the Fox broadcast network (4.74 million), CNN (4.11 million) and Fox Business (287,000). All figures are for TV viewing only and don’t include streaming.
Despite the gains over the June debate, Tuesday’s telecast isn’t likely to break any records. In 35 televised presidential debates since 1960 (there were none in 1964, 1968 and 1972), the average audience has been about 59.1 million viewers. Final numbers for Tuesday will likely surpass that average but fall far short of the record 84 million viewers for the first debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016. Two debates between Biden and Trump in 2020 averaged 68.05 million viewers.
Source: Hollywoodreporter
